Amazon is Planning to Penetrate the African Marketplace

According to news initially reported by Business Insider, Amazon, a global e-commerce technology company, plans to expand to African countries such as South Africa and Nigeria in 2023.

According to leaked documents obtained by Business Insider, Belgium, Chile, and Colombia are among the five markets that the major e-commerce corporation plans to enter next year.

According to The Cable, a specific timeframe for the rollouts would be between 2022 and 2023.

E-commerce sites like Jumia and Takealot would face stiff competition as a result of this development. Amazon presently has a presence in 20 countries and plans to expand in its primary market, the United States.

“Project Fela, codenamed South Africa, is also set to launch in February 2023. Nigeria’s marketplace is set to open in April 2023. “South Africa shares the codename Project Fela with that project,” according to the leaked paper.

In September 2022, the first initiative, dubbed “Project Red Devil,” will be started in Belgium. Colombia’s “Project Salsa” marketplace, which carries the same name as Chile, will open in February 2023. The project in Chile, on the other hand, will begin in April 2023.

According to the documents, all of the countries intend to build their own marketplaces and use Amazon’s fulfillment service, Fulfillment by Amazon.

According to The Cable, Amazon’s prime membership service will be offered in Belgium from the start, while other nations will have to wait.

“For example, Belgian shoppers will have their own dedicated prime service for a more consistent price and shopping experience,” according to the source. “Belgian buyers may already sign up for prime through some of Amazon’s other European sites.”

The corporation suffered sales losses after Covid-19 was released. This development aims to recover everything that was lost during the epidemic while also allowing for further growth. In preparation of unforeseen slowdowns, the company has been reducing staffing, subleasing warehouse space, and curtailing delivery network expansion this year.

Amazon is also building a headquarters in South Africa for its African operations. However, there were setbacks in the process after an indigenous group in the country complained that the tech giant had not followed the correct procedures in acquiring the property on which it was to be built.